Just as the gut microbiota (GM) is now recognized as an integral mediator of environmental influences on human physiology, susceptibility to disease, and response to pharmacological intervention, so too does the GM of laboratory mice affect the phenotype of research using mouse models. Multiple experimental factors have been shown to affect the composition of the GM in research mice, as well as the model phenotype, suggesting that the GM represents a major component in experimental reproducibility. Moreover, several recent studies suggest that manipulation of the GM of laboratory mice can substantially improve the predictive power or translatability of data generated in mouse models to the human conditions under investigation. This review provides readers with information related to these various factors and practices, and recommendations regarding methods by which issues with poor reproducibility or translatability can be transformed into discoveries.

正如肠道微生物群 (GM) 现在被认为是环境影响人类生理、疾病易感性和对药理干预反应的不可或缺的调解者一样，实验室小鼠的 GM 也会影响使用小鼠模型进行研究的表型。多个实验因素已被证明会影响研究小鼠中 GM 的组成以及模型表型，这表明 GM 代表了实验可重复性的主要组成部分。此外，最近的几项研究表明，对实验室小鼠的 GM 进行操作可以大大提高小鼠模型中生成的数据的预测能力或可翻译性，以适应所研究的人类条件。这篇评论为读者提供了与这些不同因素和实践相关的信息，